The Cuckoo's Nest
by Urimizo
Summary: After Katswell's most notorious act of rebellion against the mental institution, the staff plan to make sure she never has to be worried about ever again. Inspired by Ken Kesey's novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Oneshot.


The stretcher was wheeled into the room, a white cloth covered the body that lied there like a doll. The figure lay motionless throughout the day, gathering a few curious looks. The few of us left walked over and pulled off the sheet to gander, but none of us believed it to be her. They were tricking us, fueled to regain control over what happened last week. Katswell snuck out and brought over some _friends_ of hers to the institute along with a few bottles of cheap wine in an effort to rebel against the hospital we were all committed to. It was the best night any of us had experienced since being assigned to this place, especially for Keswick, who got it on with one of the gals Katswell had brought over. A lot of us were happy for him; we all had a good time.

At least until the next morning.

It didn't take long for the hospital's Head Supervisor dubbed, "The Chief," figured out what had happened. We didn't exactly make it hard for him either what with the whole place trashed, people out of their rooms, and empty bottles of wine everywhere. We thought he was angry with us then, but not until did he Chief find Keswick and the girl in bed together did the situation turned grisly. Keswick freaked out after the Chief threatened to tell his mother about what happened and had somehow acquired a knife on his person. No one could've expected he'd actually hold a shank, let alone use it on himself no less. The kid was hardly a man and yet he was lying in a pool of his own blood and shame for doing what just came natural. That's when the Chief turned his attention to Katswell.

He yelled at her for tempting the poor lad, saying his death was on her hands. He blamed her for Keswick's suicide, ignoring the fact he was the one who brought about it. I think that was the final straw for Katswell. All the laws and limitations and being cooped up in that hospital. She had had enough. She pounced on him with the look in her eyes that only a primal cat fed up with society could muster. She clawed, bit, punched, and spat with every ounce of strength in her body. One of the nurses ran to get help and it took five separate men to pull her off. And when they did, she let out this cry that still shakes my soul. It held with it the pained anger of an animal that was on its last shred of sanity, echoing down the hallway as they dragged her off to no one knew.

After a week had passed, the Chief had returned, only a lot less quiet now; the man had changed. He sported a shiner that was noticeable no matter how far away one was, scars on his face from where she cut him up, and a cast for his arm. The attack made him so jittery that he flinched whenever one of us made any sudden movement near him. His demeanor that had stricken fear in all of us had dissipated into the form of a small boy afraid of his own shadow. Over the course of the week, a lot of the patients on the floor seemed to take the initiative and either transfer to a different building or head back out into the real world. Snaptrap decided to head back home and start a family, Chameleon decided he still wasn't ready to face society and transferred, but there were still some of us that refused to go. Maybe we were hopeful things would change, maybe we were stubborn, but for me, I wanted to see my old partner again.

They took Katswell away after she went haywire on the Chief. No one saw or knew where they took her for that week, rumors flew around that they were performing experiments on her to get her to act the way they wanted her to. All the electro-shock therapy they did before only seemed to spur her reckless attitude further, make her even angrier with the hospital. The biggest rumor was that they took her in to get a lobotomy. They'd take a portion of one's brain and cut it right off, figuring that their erratic behavior was because there was something wrong with their head, and not just a part of who they were. We were all skeptical, none of us were afraid or worried for her because they couldn't hurt her. No matter what operations they could perform or procedures, she would still be the same Kitty Katswell we came to appreciate. She brought life and hope to us, things the Chief was determined to stamp out and control.

One day, a nurse brought out someone on a stretcher and left them there in the ward. A figure with the tag "lobotomy" tied to their foot. They didn't move, didn't utter any sound, no response or attempts to remove the sheet. We knew they were trying to regain control over us, as they had done before. But we were ready for them, they couldn't get us back, they were powerless now. We pulled the sheets back to see a pretty convincing person that resembled Kitty. Every feature seemed to match the original's exactly. But we all knew. We all knew it wasn't her.

"Oh sure, they got those eyes of hers, but it ain't her." Quacky said. The doctors managed to create the same green eyes as Kitty's, but there was no soul to them, no life, no _fire._

"Yeah, they got those doctors that can make a person look exactly like another. They matched the whiskers just right too, but they couldn't match the _look_ of her." Bird Brain muttered. We all stood there a while picking out the flaws the doctors and nurses had forgotten, every detail that distinguished this dummy from the original. The way this person's mouth hung open with no response to anyone, the way their eyes fixated on the ceiling tiles, their zombie like complexion, none of it resembled that of Kitty's. It was as if someone just painted over a manikin and put some clothes on them.

It stayed that way all day, the more we began to look, the more unsettled the others seemed to be getting. She laid there, still staring blankly at nothing, saying nothing. All the disbelief earlier seemed to be used to just try and convince ourselves that what was before our eyes wasn't the truth. I was always told I saw things that weren't there, but this was more real than everything before it. If everything that had happened before Kitty came wasn't true, this would be the one thing that would be. Quacky began to get restless when no one else came in to remove the stretcher. He paced back and forth over the uncovered body, his arms crossed, grabbing glances every few seconds.

"What are they trying to do? What's their game doing this, huh? They're trying to spook us, that's all, isn't it?! Isn't that right, Dudley?"

I had sat there in the room all day, the clock never seeming to change, the dead being lying in their coffin at the side. When I finally moved, the only dulling ring of the evening bell had chimed and the dark had crept into the facility. It was lights out and all of us headed into bed, though I think the others were just as apprehensive about sleeping as I was.

I lied on my mattress, wondering about Katswell's whereabouts when I heard the rusted squeaks of that dreaded stretcher being wheeled in by one of the nurses. They said something I couldn't make out, but I saw them lift up the person on the cart and slump them into their bed, the one Katswell owned. Once she tucked them in and patted them on the forehead did the nurse finally take the cart out and lock the door behind her. For whatever reason I approached the cot, unsure of whether I was going to see the truth, or a figment of my disillusioned mind. The moonlight coming in through the windows showed the same absent-minded stare we had all observed earlier in the day as there was no denying who it was any longer. Whatever they did to Kitty Katswell, it had done the job. She made no sign that she understood anything around her. She made no recognition of my approach, no nod or smile of friendship, her eyes didn't even sway. She just laid their like a doll, mouth agape and drooling like a child.

All I could feel was anger, anger towards the hospital, the staff, and at myself for not even being able to protect my ex-partner. I had to make it right. I couldn't allow her to live like this, like a hollowed shell of a creature, living under someone else's thumb. I took a pillow from one of the empty cots near her and kneeled over her. We shared one last contact between eyes before I laid the pillow over her face. She bucked and struggled, a natural reaction at surviving. But this was no way of living; I had to free her from her useless body. I easily over-powered her, firm with my grip on the pillow over her. Eventually, as the moments passed, her struggling began to slow and weaken. As her arms went limp and her body relaxed, I remained frozen for a second as I began to realize what had happened. I slipped off of her and gave her a final glance over, same expression as before: a doll's hollow expression. I closed her eyes and mouth; made her more presentable for when the nursing staff find her in the morning.

But they wouldn't find me.

I knew I wouldn't be able to take one more day of this accursed hospital. What Kitty had done changed me as a man; I needed to get out of this place tonight. I walked over to the control panel for the lights and alarms that Kitty had tried to lift weeks earlier. She gave it her all just to end up cutting her hands and losing a bet, but she made sure to get it across to us that she at least tried. That's what she wanted us to learn that day, that you have to at least try if you want to succeed. Well that's what I did. I grabbed the corners of the control panel, its metal digging into my hands as I pulled it with every ounce of strength I could muster. Much to my amazement, the giant panel began to remove itself from the wall, metal grinding on stone as I continued to strain myself against it. Blood droplets spattered on the floor as I could feel the corners cut into my hands, but the adrenaline surge in my veins continued to spur me on. I could hear the wires connecting it to the wall snap and with one final tug, the whole thing came out and almost crushed me beneath it.

I made sure to position myself up against one of the reinforced windows just right, I only had one shot at this. My knees shook and my energy was dwindling as I gave the last bit of my strength into heaving it through the window. The glass shattered under the heavy panel, opening the hospital into the cool breeze of the evening. An alarm went off as I took no chances and jumped out. I don't remember ever stopping to look over my shoulder that night, all I do recount is finally opening my eyes to see it was daylight and the sun coming over the tree line. Everything that had been a part of me in that hospital was gone now, all left behind me in that place of horrors. I had no more nightmares of the staff and their evil machines, no delusions of people with rusted entrails, my head was clear for the first time in decades. I had my life to look forward to again now, I was no longer afraid.

I was a free man.


End file.
